oracle/graal · warning · InvalidArgumentException

no value provided

Error message

no value provided

What it means

InvalidArgumentException from BooleanValue.parseValue: parseValue was called with a null argument, meaning a boolean command-line option was declared/required but no value string was supplied at parse time. The option framework distinguishes 'missing value' (null) from 'unparseable value' (the sibling 'invalid boolean value' error).

Source

Thrown at compiler/src/jdk.graal.compiler/src/jdk/graal/compiler/util/args/BooleanValue.java:45

import java.util.Locale;

/**
 * Parses a literal boolean ("true" or "false", ignoring case) from command line arguments.
 */
public class BooleanValue extends OptionValue<Boolean> {

    public BooleanValue(String name, String help) {
        super(name, help);
    }

    public BooleanValue(String name, boolean defaultValue, String help) {
        super(name, defaultValue, help);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean parseValue(String arg) throws InvalidArgumentException {
        if (arg == null) {
            throw new InvalidArgumentException(getName(), "no value provided");
        }
        switch (arg.toLowerCase(Locale.US)) {
            case "true":
                value = true;
                break;
            case "false":
                value = false;
                break;
            default:
                throw new InvalidArgumentException(getName(), String.format("invalid boolean value: \"%s\"", arg));
        }
        return true;
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to a66e9ccd1d)

Solutions

1. Supply an explicit value: '-optionName=true' or 'optionName true' depending on the parser's convention.
2. If the option should be a pure flag, use an option type that treats bare presence as true (a Variant/flag style) instead of BooleanValue.
3. Catch InvalidArgumentException at the CLI boundary and print the option's help text (getName() identifies which option failed).

Example fix

# before
$ tool --verbose        # BooleanValue gets null

# after
$ tool --verbose=true

// Normalize CLI tokens before handing them to the parser
static String ensureBoolValue(String name, String raw) {
    return (raw == null) ? "true" : raw;   // or reject explicitly:
    // if (raw == null) throw new InvalidArgumentException(name, "expects =true|=false");
}

try {
    cmd.parse(args);
} catch (InvalidArgumentException e) {
    if ("no value provided".equals(e.getMessage())) {
        printUsage(e.getOption()); // tell user to pass =true/=false
    } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: A Command/OptionValue-based CLI parses args where a boolean option name appears at the end of the argument list (or its '=' form has no right-hand side), so the framework passes null into BooleanValue.parseValue.

Common situations: Users writing './tool -verbose' (flag style) when the parser expects '-verbose=true'; trailing option name after a shell line-continuation mistake; programmatic arg-array construction that drops the value element.

Related errors

• invalid boolean value: "%s"
• no subcommand named '%s'
• no value provided
• invalid double value: "%s"
• no value provided

AI-assisted analysis of oracle/graal@a66e9ccd1d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/31ff003fcb98598a. Report an issue: GitHub.